Commentary 3: Communication and Meaning Construction

The chapters in the preceding section of this volume raise a host of fascinating questions about communication and the construction of meaning. Starting with a thoroughgoing critique of the “methodological individualism” (Lukes, 1977; Wertsch, 1998) that continues to creep into accounts of communication and meaning construction, they move in several directions to open new paths of inquiry. In so doing, the authors share a few common concerns. Perhaps the two most important and pervasive of these are (a) the claim that serious sociocultural analysis must retain its focus on the fundamentally social nature of human communication and action, and (b) the claim that the social processes involved are inherently dynamic and, to some extent, indeterminant.